Ila Nagar
Contact Information
Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Areas of Expertise
- Sociolinguistics, ethnography, language variation
- Language, gender, and sexuality
- South Asia Studies
Education
- B.A. Aligarh Muslim University - Linguistics
- M.A. Jawaharlal Nehru University - Linguistics
- Ph.D. The Ohio State University, Linguistics
Ila Nagar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at The Ohio State University. She studies the complex intersections of language, politics, gender, and power, specifically focusing on how linguistic choices shape social hierarchies and marginalization in South Asia. Dr. Nagar is the author of Being Janana: Language and Sexuality in Contemporary India (2019), a longitudinal ethnographic study of subaltern male sex workers in Lucknow. Her more recent work, including the book Weaponizing Language: Legislating a Hindu India (2025), examines how "linguistic trickery" in political and media discourse impacts the legal and social standing of minority groups.
A sociolinguist and ethnographer, Nagar received her PhD in Linguistics from The Ohio State University in 2008.